Mulcher guys! What do you do AFTER the mulching is done?

[Piston]

And don't say "load it onto the trailer and go to the next job" :laughing:


I posted a thread in the 'attachments' forum with a similar question.
I have about 6-8 acres of land I want to start clearing in the summer/fall up in NH. The land is gently to moderately sloping and level for about 2 acres of it. It is mostly brush and saplings to 3" and maybe 4" thick, and also small pines and some medium pines about 12" to 16" DBH. There are also medium sized hardwoods that I will either keep for looks, or cut for firewood, any hardwoods over 3-4" will be firewood.

I have a John Deere 410 that I will be doing the clearing with, for the larger trees, basically my plan is to go in there and push them over, then using my kubota L4610 and FEL with open bottom grapple, move the trees to my pile. I will limb the trees where they land and leave it. Then have the mulcher come in and clear all the smaller stuff under 4-5 inches as well as mulch up all the limbs.

Does this sound like a good plan so far?

My question is what to I do AFTER that in order to prepare for seed? I was planning on using a Harley Rake to prep the soil and level it out, but I understand that I will have many small stumps from the saplings (large stumps will be gone)
Do any of you mulcher guys know what the next step is after mulching? I am going to be purchasing a box blade when I find one and figured I would scarify up the soil and small stumps, also using the grapple, and hopefully go with the Harley Rake after that. I don't need a golf course lawn but I want something that will take seed and look decent when I'm done. I figured you land clearing guys must run into this all the time. :thumbsup:

 

[5030]

have a saspirila.

 

[Piston]

have a saspirila.

I knew somebody would come up with the wise comment, I just didn't think it would be the first guy! :laughing:

 

[Bartcephus]

Depends....

No, not the adult diaper.... It depends on what YOU would find satisfactory. From your post, seems like you would be happy with somewhat "level" land. Here are some thoughts.....

Options:
1. Dozer with brush blade to clear out sapling roots etc.
2. Ratchet Rake on FEL
3. Landscape Rake
4. Blade (or box blade) to level
5. Tilling the soil (Avoiding buried roots/stumps) with a disk or tiller.
6. Rolling the soil
7. Grading the soil with a harrow, drag or other implement

I have seen some "seed beds" that looked pretty rough to me, and then some seed beds that were so smooth you didn't want an ant to crawl across it and mess it up with his tracks. Until we "know" where you really want to go, there are a lot of options here depending on "how fine" or "refined" you want the finished pasture.

I have cleared land, then run my middle buster over as much as I can to dig out small brush roots and stumps, removed the debris, then come in with a disk or tiller and then finished with a drag harrow or even a hunk of chain link fence to level out. It also depends on how much time you are willing to put into it. After a roto-tiller, I have usually had to compact the soil a little to not leave tire ruts behind before running the "harrow" over it. I have finished small plots with a hand rake too. I don't recommend that in this heat.

Best Regards,

Bart

 

[fishfactor]

If you are planning on having a mulcher come in, I would recommend not doing any clearing before hand yourself. Often, it will make the mulching more difficult, especially if they are using a CTL size mulcher. They mulch trees much better when they are standing. If you hire a good mulcher, you can tell him what size/type of trees you want to keep and turn him loose.

While many advertise that ground is ready to seed after mulching, sometimes this isn't the case. With a bunch of small trees they can spend a lot of time back dragging and mulch everything up pretty small. If they have carbide hammer teeth, you will have little sprigs still sticking up, but ready to plant if your not picky. These little sprigs are just too small and flexible for the carbide teeth. These can be taken care of with a bush hog.

It sounds like you won't be mulching any big trees, but if you do, they leave a lot of mulch on the ground. In areas where we mulch lots of 20"-24" trees, it is not uncommon to have 8" - 12" of mulch on the ground. Good for preventing regrowth, not so good for planting.

Another thing to consider is the pH of the soil. Mulching adds a lot of acidity to the soil. Depending on the natural pH of the soil in your area, keep this in mind. Adding lime is often necessary to bring the pH back up within the range for most grasses. This will be a process that occurs over time as the mulch rots away.